Cool Kids Club/No Limits Summer Camp celebrates 15th anniversary

With the end of the school year just around the corner, the Cool Kids Club/No Limits program is ready to kick off its 15th year of operation in Sidney, with registration for its annual summer camp beginning on April 1.

"We've come a long way from that first year," program director Coleen Langdon said.

The Cool Kids Club started in Oct. 2001 when school administrators from Sidney and Chadron wrote a joint grant to begin a before, after and summer school program in their communities. A $1.5 million three-year grant was awarded under the "No Child Left Behind" federal initiative.

"We started out at North Elementary with K-3 (Kindergarten through third grade) and used one classroom in the gym with 12 kids," Langdon said. "And I had made home visits to the parents of every one of those kids to convince them to send them to my program."

By the summer, Langdon said the program grew to 65 students for a 12-week camp at North Elementary.

"We only used the gym, the library, the art room and that's about it," she said.

Today, the Cool Kids Club averages more than 120 active participants daily and has spread out to two additional sites at Central and South Elementary schools for their after school program.

In 2004, the program was extended to students in fourth through eighth grade, and later all the way through 12th grade. Dubbed "No Limits," the new group allowed for higher level projects and activities aimed at an older crowd.

"They are 'No Limits' because they are too old to be called 'Cool Kids,'" Langdon said. "They wanted to name themselves. I let them have at it, and they came up with that name."

Today, the program is independent from state funding, and thrives through private grants as well as donations from local individuals and businesses.

"We've had donations from the Salvation Army, banks, individuals, foundations and organizations," Langdon said.

With its summer program, Cool Kids Club/No Limits offers students nine weeks of activities, starting in June, held eight hours daily at North Elementary. Langdon said the camp is open to children both inside and outside Cheyenne County, and registered students do not have to attend every day or for every activity.

"They can come and go as they wish," she said. "We're extremely flexible on how many days, and we charge only for the days they attend."

While payment is done in arrears, or after the end of the camp, Langdon said students still need to register before they can attend.

"Those forms have all the permission information and medical contacts," she said.

Breakfast and lunch are also provided as part of the summer food service program with Sidney Public Schools at no extra charge.

Langdon described the summer camp as "extensive, to say the least." The weekly schedule will include a variety of projects focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, along with other activities such as gardening, sewing, physical education, outdoor skills, teambuilding, nutrition, agriculture and more.

Interspersed throughout the camp will be larger group activities such as swimming, bowling, a magic show and participation in the annual Gold Rush Days and Cheyenne County Fair.

The camp will also have a field trip to Hot Springs, S.D., for students in second grade and above to visit the wind cave and mammoth site.

"This was made possible by a grant from the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation," Langdon said. "It's part of their STEM program."

In 2014, the Cool Kids Club/No Limits partnered with the Cheyenne County 4-H program as an active club. Langdon said the collaboration allows them to use 4-H curriculum, which Langdon said follows all of the state educational standards, and expands the activities they are able to offer their members.

"Over the years, we had done some preliminary things (with the 4-H)," she said. "But to really get immersed in what they were doing, we had to become an actual club. It's been fabulous."

As an active 4-H club, the program is able to participate in 4-H activities such as its annual spring carnival and the county fair.

"We had nearly 300 entries in the fair last year," Langdon said.

Langdon said the Cheyenne County Extension office is providing three interns and one AmeriCorps volunteer for the summer camp to help with a variety of activities.

Langdon said one of the more exciting projects this year, provided by the 4-H curriculum and augmented by a $5,000 grant from the Susan Buffett Sherwood Foundation, is Entrepreneurship Investigation, or ESI, which is open to students fifth grade and above.

"This is open to the public," Langdon said. "It doesn't have to be just Cool Kids. We are welcoming whoever would like to do this."

In the project, groups are tasked with creating a product or service and building a business around it. Langdon said they will write up a business plan which they will pitch to local banks who will decide whether or not to grant them a business loan."

"The loan money actually comes from Kids Plus," she said.

Langdon said the group are then taken shopping to buy whatever they need for their product or service. They will also create brochures, business cards, radio ads and t-shirts for their company before selling their product or service at the Cheyenne County Farmers' Market and the county fair, with the funds raised going towards paying back their loan.

"And then at the fair, their whole project will be judged since this is a 4-H program," Langdon said.

Langdon said the project was started last year "on a wing and a prayer," but with the grant funds, this year's will be bigger and better.

Also open to the public will be a science camp from July 25 to 29 to close out the summer camp. The location of the science camp, as well as the fee for attending, has not been determined at the time of this printing.

As this year marks the 15th anniversary of the Cool Kids Club/No Limits program, Langdon said a "birthday bash" is planned for the summer camp but the details are still being planned out.

Last year, the summer camp brought in 180 students. Langdon said she anticipates the same average turnout for this year's camp as well.

The Cool Kids Club/No Limits Summer Camp kicks off Tuesday, May 31, and continues for nine weeks through Friday, July 29.

Costs for the camp are set at $2 per hour, or $16 per eight-hour day. Students with reduced lunches are set at $8 per day, and those with free lunches through the schools have a fee of $4 per day.

Langdon said the program has never turned down anybody for the camp, and special arrangements can be made by contacting her.

Registration for the summer camp begins April 1, with forms available at all Sidney Public School offices and at the Cheyenne County Community Center located at 627 Toledo St. Completed forms can be returned to those same locations.

For more information, contact Coleen Langdon at Central Elementary at (308) 254-3642, by cell at (308) 249-6572 or by email at [email protected].